Building Sweet Memories
by Zerectica
Summary: Christmas has come to the Bartowski-Woodcomb apartment and everyone has plans for how to celebrate the holiday. Written for the 2009 Holiday Fic Exchange Challenge.


_**A/N: This fic was written for the 2009 Holiday Fic Exchange Challenge.**_

_**This one is for my friend ****brickroad16**__**. I hope you enjoy it and Merry Christmas.**_

_**Her requests included, gingerbread houses, ice skating and sibling double dating. She requested that the story not include any, slash, character deaths or a mistletoe kiss. She wished for the pairing of Ellie and Devon and the prompt for the story was, Devon plans an evening for Ellie for their first married Christmas together.**_

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The sweet scent of gingerbread flowed from the oven and filled the warm, cozy kitchen. When the oven's door was opened, the delicious aroma wafted throughout the entire apartment. The enticing smell soon found its way into one of the bedrooms, where it aroused a sleeper from his dreams.

"Mornin' babe," Devon exclaimed with his usual exuberance as he entered the kitchen. "What smells so delicious?"

"Hey honey," Ellie responded somewhat distractedly as she concentrated on the task of removing her baked goods from the oven.

Devon watched as his wife placed the cookie sheet she had pulled from the oven on the stove-top to see what she had baked this morning. What he saw were pieces of gingerbread that had been cut into various shapes, some having window and door shaped openings cut out.

"Gingerbread. Awesome!"

"And you're not going to touch it," Ellie warned. "Chuck's bringing Sarah over tonight and we're gonna put the houses together."

While Ellie was fussing over her creations, Devon entered the kitchen to prepare one of his special, unappetizing breakfast shakes. When Ellie turned away from the stove, she collided into her husband, who had positioned himself right behind her without her knowledge. The new Mrs. Woodcomb's yelp of surprise was cut short when Devon suddenly wrapped his arms around her and moved in for a kiss.

Ellie smiled into Devon's lips and melted against his chest. "You're still not getting any of that gingerbread. No matter how good your kisses are."

"I'm not interested in the gingerbread. I want the gingerbread maker."

"Devon!" Ellie admonished. "Chuck's right in the other room and he's probably awake by now."

When Chuck came out of his room shortly thereafter, Ellie and Devon were still wrapped around each other, the latter being shirtless, yet again.

"Devon, do you even _own_ a shirt?" Chuck's voice broke the couple apart and caused Devon to turn in the direction of his brother-in-law.

"Good morning, bro!"

"Chuck," Ellie queried, changing the topic of discussion. "You and Sarah don't have any plans tonight do you?"

Chuck searched his brain momentarily for any mission scheduled for the day. Finding none, he answered, "No. Why?"

"Good! Because you're bringing Sarah over tonight and we're gonna make some gingerbread houses."

"Gingerbread houses?" Chuck answered perplexed. "We haven't done that since we were kids."

"I know. It's been too long. That's why we're doing it this year."

Chuck saw the excitement in his sister's eyes and he could see how much she was looking forward to this, so he agreed. He'd figure out some way to convince Sarah later. "Okay Sis, I'll talk to Sarah about it during my lunch break."

Once Chuck finished his shift the Buy More that evening, he followed Sarah back to her place so she could change out of her Orange Orange uniform before heading over his and Ellie's apartment. Well now that they were married, the apartment was more Ellie's and Devon's than his.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Sarah called from the bathroom as she applied the final touches to her makeup. "I don't know anything about making gingerbread houses. You know I've never had anything resembling a normal Christmas."

"It'll be great Sarah. I promise, you'll have fun."

When they arrived at the apartment, Chuck took Sarah's hand and they started toward the door. The moment Chuck pushed the door open, something caught the eye of Agent Walker that caused her to stop dead in her tracks. Still holding onto Sarah's hand, Chuck's momentum was halted and he too was forced to come to a stop.

"What's wrong Sarah?" Chuck whispered as he turned to face her. "Why'd you stop?"

"It's nothing Chuck. Just go on in. I'll be there in a minute."

"Are you sure," Chuck asked, genuine concern reflected in his eyes.

"Yes, Chuck. I'm fine. Just go inside. I'll be right behind you."

After another moment's hesitation, Chuck released Sarah's hand from his and entered the apartment.

When no one was paying her any notice, Sarah yanked the white-berried plant from where it hung and forcibly threw it away from herself and away from the apartment. With a splash, it landed in the courtyard's fountain sinking to the bottom, where no one would ever be able to find it.

A flurry of chatter from within the apartment caught the attention of Sarah's ears and shook her back to reality. The fountain was filled only with its own water and the white-berried plant still hung in its place. As much as she may want to jerk that plant down and fling it into the depths of the gently splashing fountain, Sarah knew that such an action wouldn't go over well with Ellie. And so the plant would have to stay right where it was.

Taking note that Chuck was deep inside the apartment and currently engaged in a conversation with his sister, Sarah quickly passed through the doorway, the mistletoe hanging above making her nervous. The temptation to yank it down and toss it out of sight didn't leave her, but she restrained from acting on the urge. Relieved to have avoided being caught under the mistletoe with Chuck, further compromising herself when she would be forced to kiss him, she relaxed a little and joined Chuck and the others in the kitchen.

Sarah was easily able to slip into the group undetected. It was as though she had been there at Chuck's side all along. While her training assisted her in this task, it was everyone's preoccupation with setting everything up so that they could start work on assembling the gingerbread houses that really allowed her delayed entry to go unnoticed. Everyone was so oblivious to anything not directly related to the project they had gathered for, that she probably could have hung outside for another couple minutes before her absence would have be noticed.

"Ellie are you sure about this? I've never made one of these before. I don't know how to do it."

"Of course! It'll be fun Sarah, I promise."

"Chuck said the same thing."

"Yeah, now stop trying to get out of making a gingerbread house. You're gonna have a normal Christmas this year Sarah Walker."

After a rocky start, in which the walls of the house she was helping Chuck to put together fell over, Sarah began to get the hang of the art of gingerbread house making. She was even beginning to enjoy herself a little.

After a lot of hard work and fun, the houses were ready to be decorated with sweets, but one member of the decorating team had other ideas. Sarah picked up one of the gumdrops intended to be used on the houses and popped it into her mouth.

"Hey!" Chuck shouted trying make his words sound like a reprimand, but his tone of voice instead coming off as amused. "Those aren't for eating. That's supposed to be for the gingerbread houses."

Sarah's response was to grab another gumdrop, hold it to her lip, stick out her tongue and pull the sweet treat into her mouth. All the while, her eyes were daring Chuck to stop her and her lips were pulled into a playful smile.

All Chuck could do was shake his head at Sarah's antics and try not laugh.

After her second piece of candy, Sarah stopped eating the colorful confections and joined Chuck in the decorating of one of the gingerbread houses, while Ellie and Devon worked together on another. It wasn't a competition to see who could build the best looking house, but Sarah couldn't help but feel that it was. She felt that her involvement would just ruin the house she was supposed to be helping Chuck with. Walls were one thing, but those tiny candies were another. While attempting to attach the candies to the house, she could very well knock the whole thing down. For that reason, Sarah tried to contribute as little as possible to the decorating process without it seeming obvious. She spent a great deal of time placing each candy decoration on the house. In the time that she took to put one sweet on the house, the others were putting on three or four.

"Ooh, Chuck, Sarah, that looks great!" Ellie squealed with delight once the two houses were complete.

"Oh, no. Yours looks so much better Ellie. I'm afraid I just made a mess out of ours."

"Nonsense. It's beautiful."

"Yeah, Sarah, that looks awesome!" Devon agreed.

Now that the two couples had finished with their work, the only remaining task was to straighten up. Chuck wanted to stay and help clean up the mess that he had helped to create and Sarah felt bad about leaving the entire mess for Ellie and Devon, but it had grown late and Ellie insisted that Chuck take Sarah home before it got even later. There was no convincing her otherwise. So Chuck had no choice but to relent and drive Sarah back to her place and leave the cleanup job to his sister and brother-in-law.

Well when Ellie and Devon were left alone in the apartment, cleaning the messy kitchen wasn't really on their minds. The plastic tubes containing the icing used to put the gingerbread houses together still had some icing left inside. Ellie picked up one of the tubes and squeezed a little icing onto her fingertip, then playfully swiped it across Devon's nose. It didn't stay there long however as she kissed from his face almost immediately after putting it there.

While Ellie and Devon made the sticky kitchen even sticker as they continued their playful antics with the leftover food items, Chuck and Sarah were silently traveling down the quiet road.

"Sarah," Chuck started hesitantly as they neared their destination. "Tomorrow is Christmas Eve..."

Sarah tensed at the mention of the holiday, wondering what Chuck was going to ask of her regarding the day.

"I know my sister is gong to have something planned and she's going to insist that we join her and Devon in whatever those plans are. Are you going to be okay with that?"

"Of course, Chuck," Sarah replied, though she didn't sound very convincing.

Just as Chuck predicted, Ellie had made plans for the way her family, Sarah included, would spend Christmas Eve this year. She didn't want a repeat of last years fiasco. So under no circumstances was anyone to go to Buy More, or any other retail store for that matter. Although, avoiding the Buy More would be easy this year. After the hostage situation that occurred last Christmas Eve, the store had decided to close down for the day in hopes of avoiding a repeat performance of that awful day this Christmas. It had been decided that taking precautions to avoid anything like that happening, outweighed the loss of any profits they might have received from last minute shoppers.

Ellie's plans for Christmas Eve began early in the morning with breakfast. Ellie had prepared pancakes to be eaten with powered sugar, rather than syrup. Chuck tried to protest, stating that he preferred his pancakes with syrup, that it was cruel to separate pancakes and syrup as they belonged together. But Ellie had insisted on the powered sugar, saying that it was more Christmas-y and therefore the pancakes would be covered in sugar. No one wishing to go up against Ellie, everyone topped their pancakes with with the snow-like substance with a smile.

After breakfast, everyone gathered on the couch to watch Christmas movies on TV, until it was time for Ellie's next activity for the day. That activity began about an hour after lunch, when Chuck, Sarah, Ellie and Devon headed over to the Pickwick Ice Arena. It wasn't located too far from the apartment so they reached their destination in just under ten minutes.

It seemed many other people had the same idea to come to the ice arena today too, and the rental skates were going fast. Ellie was worried that by the time it was their turn at the rental counter, the skate sizes they needed would be gone. But it seemed that luck was on their side. There was only one pair left in Chuck's size, those of the rest of the group were still readily available.

Chuck didn't view that as being lucky however. "Ellie do I really have to skate? Can't I just sit and watch you guys?"

"Yes, Chuck, you do."

"Don't you remember the last time we went ice skating? In less than a minute, my feet flew out from under my body and I fell flat on the ice. Everyone was laughing so hard that mom and dad had to take us home and no one ever got the chance to skate. Do you want that to happen again?"

"Chuck, you were eight."

"Yeah, and I don't think my skating has really improved since then."

But Ellie wasn't listening. "Put those skates on and get out on the ice." And with that she walked off, not giving her brother a chance to speak.

Sarah had been discretely listening to the conversation between Chuck and his sister and when Chuck was left alone, she approached.

"Hi Chuck," Sarah said softly, as she took a seat next to him.

Ellie, who was already out on the ice with Devon, had the blonde spy within her sights, so Sarah placed her hand on Chuck's neck. She lied to herself saying that the only reason for seeking contact with the curly-headed man next to her was because his sister was watching and she needed to seal the cover. But deep within her, under all the lies and deceit, she knew the truth.

When Ellie turned away and continued to skate around the rink, Sarah turned her full attention to Chuck. He seemed to be mesmerized, almost as if he were in a trance. It was as though the touch of her hand on his neck wielded some great power over him. He looked into her eyes as if the entire universe consisted only of her, as if he were hers to bend at her every word.

Well she knew one thing, she definitely had his attention, so she began to speak. "Chuck, do you remember what I told you before? About how you could do anything? Well, I know that's true. I've seen it. And I know that you can do this too. So put on your skates and join me and your sister and her husband out on the ice."

When she finished speaking, Sarah slowly removed her hand from Chuck's neck and went toward the ice. The moment her hand left his skin, Chuck started to hastily pull on his skates. He couldn't get them on fast enough and soon he was stepping out onto the the frozen surface with the others.

Chuck's first step onto the ice was an unsteady one and he lost his footing a little. While he was trying to find his balance, a hand was extended to him. Chuck didn't need to look up to determine the owner of the hand that he'd been offered. He knew Sarah Walker's hand better than he knew his own.

The ever aware Sarah had noticed Chuck's struggle to stand on the blades of his skates instantly and had quickly skated over to help. Without hesitation, Chuck took the extended hand of his beautiful rescuer as he worked to find his footing.

It took some time, but he was able to achieve balance, though he still wasn't ready to release Sarah's hand. Sarah wasn't ready to let go of Chuck's hand either, although for different reasons. But Sarah figured that Chuck also shared that reason for not wanting to break the bond of their joined hands just yet. So as they glided across the icy rink, their hands remained intact. Ellie noticing this, thought it to be a cute couple thing to do, so she joined in by taking Devon's hand.

With Ellie and Devon now skating linked to one another, the hands of Chuck and Sarah became further cemented together. The doctors' hands were the key to their lock. For as long as Ellie and Devon's hands remained together, Chuck and Sarah's would as well.

So together the unconventional couple floated across the rink hand-in-hand. All the while a million conflicting emotions raged within the hearts and minds of each one. And the heat created by the contact of their joined hands would be hot enough that a hole would burnt though the ice should they decide to touch it.

When the group grew tired, or rather when Chuck and Ellie grew tired, it was time to leave. The four left the ice, removed their skates, returned them to the man in charge of skate rental and headed back to Casa Bartowski-Woodcomb.

Upon entering the cozy apartment, they were greeted by the scent of sweet gingerbread and it was irresistible, especially to one member of the group, who couldn't help but snap a corner of the roof of one of the houses off and pop the delicious treat into their mouth.

"Devon! What are you doing!?" Ellie scolded.

"Tasting the house we made together babe. It's awesome!"

Devon then proceed to to break off another piece of the house, which followed the first into his stomach. Ellie watched in horror as her creation was torn apart piece by piece, and yet she couldn't resist the urge to taste the gingerbread herself.

Chuck and Sarah just stood back watching the slow demolition of the little house, but when Devon made a move to sample the still intact gingerbread house, Chuck jumped in to save it. "You have you own house. You don't have to eat mine."

"Are you okay," Chuck said in a soothing voice tuning to the sweet smelling house. "Don't worry little house. I won't let him eat you."

"Chuck..." Sarah said interrupting him.

Hearing his name, Chuck looked up from the house he was still talking to, thinking that Sarah was going to playfully tease him about talking to a house made of gingerbread. What she said however wasn't about his conversing with food, but rather an earlier comment he had made.

"That's not your house. We both worked on making that, remember? It's our house."

No sooner than the words were out of her mouth, Sarah realized what she had said, _our house_. That house may only be the size of a breadbox and made of edible items, but the words _our house_ had Sarah's mind drifting away to a world that existed only within her own consciousness. She was picturing a beautiful house with a big yard where two curly-headed, blue-eyed kids and and one chocolate-eyed, blonde-haired little boy ran about, their laughter filling the air, while she and Chuck sat close by watching with warm smiles painted on their faces.

Just as quickly as the daydream started, it faded away into the deepest recesses of her heart. She couldn't have that. No matter how much she wanted it, that was something she would never have.

Chuck was able to save the gingerbread house he and Sarah built and even managed to sneak a taste of Ellie and Devon's. To ensure it's continued safety, he decided Sarah should keep it at her place. Devon wouldn't be able to get his hands on it there.

Ellie had more things planned for the day, but Devon stepped in to announce that he had already made plans for the evening, beginning with dinner reservations at a nice restaurant. Ellie decided that a nice dinner at a fancy restaurant with her family was better than going caroling and any of the other things she had planned, so she willing handed over the rest of Christmas Eve to her awesome new husband.

Ellie and Devon headed on over to the restaurant alone, while Chuck and Sarah went over to the latter's home in order for her to change into the proper attire.

Upon entering Sarah's place of residence, she sat the cute little gingerbread house Chuck had insisted she keep for its protection, on the small table in her room. She would keep it there throughout the rest of the year and maybe on into the next. She wanted to keep it for as long as she could. It was the closet thing she would ever get to sharing a house with Chuck. Every time she looks at it, she sees the lives they could've had if their paths had been different.

After changing into a simple black dress and touching up her makeup, they're ready to go meet Ellie and Devon at the restaurant.

Dinner at the restaurant was uncomfortable for Chuck and Sarah. The atmosphere of the place was more romantic than they had expected. The building was quite dark, most of the light came from the candles that burned on every table. Soft violin music floated throughout the room and red roses also sat in a vase in the center each table.

The very romantic setting lead them to be uncertain of how to comport themselves in such a place, the unique nature of their relationship creating problems. They didn't want to arouse Ellie's suspicions, but they didn't want to get swept up in the romantic atmosphere and compromise themselves even further than they already had either.

While at dinner, Devon presented Ellie with an early Christmas gift in the form of a beautiful necklace with a diamond pendant. "Devon! It's beautiful! I love it!"

Devon's presenting of Ellie with a gift made things even more awkward between the other couple than they already were. Devon hadn't told Chuck that he planned to give Ellie a gift during dinner, so Chuck didn't bring his gift for Sarah with him. Her gift was still safely tucked away in his room. Though, even if he had known of Devon's early gift-giving plans, Chuck would have still left the gift in his room. It was a gift that he needed to give Sarah when they were alone because Ellie wouldn't understand the gift he gotten her. A new set of throwing knives.

Chuck and Sarah got some much needed relief from the awkwardness that had descended upon them the very moment they stepped through the doors of the restaurant when the food finally came. The tension that had been building within them and saturating the air surrounding them was released and they were finally able to relax and enjoy the great tasting food.

Once dinner was over, the two couples went their separate ways. Devon had plans for romantic evening alone with Ellie and he obviously couldn't do that with other people around, so he asked Chuck if he could find something to do with Sarah for a while.

When Chuck told Sarah of this, her response was, "Oh, that'll be good for our cover. Ellie would expect us to spend some time alone on Christmas Eve."

Chuck could tell that Sarah was hiding her true feelings regarding the matter of being alone with him tonight. What he couldn't tell however, was what her true feelings were. Even Sarah herself was unsure.

The awkwardness that had found them in the restaurant returned as soon as they walked through green door leading into Sarah's place of residence. Neither knew what to do with themselves.

An unknown length of awkwardness passed in silence as Chuck and Sarah sat on the bed, neither looking at the other. When the awkwardness continued on a little too long for Sarah's liking, she stood and walked over to one of of the drawers containing her clothes and pulled out a small box wrapped in red paper with a gold bow on top.

"Merry Christmas Chuck," Sarah said handing him the gift.

Chuck looked down at the wrapped package in his hands and his face fell.

"What's wrong? Maybe I shouldn't gotten you anything... But I thought..."

"What? No! It's just that I don't have a present for you. Well, I mean I don't have a gift for you _here_. It's still in my room at home."

'That's okay Chuck. I don't need a present." What she didn't say was that spending time with him was all the gift she needed. She decided that being forced to spend the evening of Christmas Eve with him wasn't so bad. That despite a little awkwardness, it was actually rather nice. Here they didn't have to play a role for the sake of their covers. Since there were no cameras, they could spend time together while still being themselves. They didn't have that luxury often.

"No, it isn't okay. I'll go home and get it and bring it right back."

"How are you going to get it? Ellie and Devon are there. They're expecting to spend an evening alone."

"Easy. I'll just think like Morgan."

Before Sarah could question what he meant by that, he was already out the door and on his way.

He made good time and soon he was sneaking into his room via the Morgan Door. Trying not to make a sound, Chuck tiptoed through his room to retrieve Sarah's gift. As soon as he located it and and had the Christmas gift securely in his hands, he silently went back out the way he came in.

Ellie and Devon, who were cuddled together on the couch and engaging in a passionate lip-lock, were never aware of the presence of another person in the apartment.

"Devon, this is the best Christmas I've ever had. The dinner. The dancing, cuddling on the couch. This beautiful necklace you got me. It's all been so wonderful."

"And the night's still young babe."

"You mean there's more?"

"Of course. This is our first Christmas together as husband and wife. I want it to be memorable."

While Ellie and Devon continued with their romantic evening, Chuck was returning to Sarah. When Chuck made it back with Sarah's gift, he tucked it behind his back prior knocking on the door.

Before he even completed the first knock, the door swung open. No matter how often if happened, Chuck never got used to the way Sarah always seemed to know when he was on the other side of the door.

Chuck had intended to wait for the right moment to present Sarah with her Christmas gift, but in his nervousness, he immediately pulled the present from behind his back and held it out to her the moment he saw her standing there looking so radiant.

As he stood there with the festive package held out in front of him, Chuck got the feeling that there was something different about Sarah now compared to when he left her to go pick up the gift. But he couldn't put his finger on what that was. It was going to drive him crazy until he found out what about her had changed while he was gone.

Sarah didn't take the present from his hand, but invited him to sit on the edge of the bed with her. They were back in the same positions as they were before Chuck's departure, only now they were facing each other and the awkwardness that had been present, had since dissipated.

When Sarah went to pick her gift for Chuck from the bed, Chuck realized what it was about Sarah that was different. She was wearing the charm bracelet he had given her in the Buy More during the hostage situation last Christmas. She hadn't been wearing it during dinner. In fact, it had been a while since she wore it last. It had been so long that he'd almost forgotten that he had even given her his mother's charm bracelet. While he away on a mission to pick up her present, she must have dug it out and put it on. Seeing the bracelet on Sarah's wrist filled him with such warmth, that his cheeks actually turned flush.

"Merry Christmas," Chuck said holding Sarah's gift out to her once again, the smile caused by the sight of the bracelet on her wrist only growing brighter.

"Merry Christmas, Chuck," Sarah said speaking at the same moment as Chuck, eliciting as soft giggle at the odd occurrence.

"You open first," both again spoke together. This time it was Chuck who laughed at their timing.

Since they couldn't agree on who should open their gift first, Chuck suggested that they open them at the same time, much like they had been speaking in the same moment.

Chuck had his Christmas present open first, as he tore through the paper, while Sarah took great care in removing the Santa adorned wrapping.

"Oh wow-- this is-- this game isn't even out yet! How'd you get it?! Awesome! I've been dying to get my hands on this game forever! I can't believe you got this! How?!"

Chuck spoke so fast and so excitedly that Sarah had a hard time understanding him, but one thing she did get was that he liked his gift. She also got that he was perplexed as to how she had acquired such a gift.

"A little bit of CIA magic."

After carefully removing the last piece of tape, Sarah finally had her own gift open. When the knives from Chuck were revealed, she couldn't couldn't stop the smile that crept onto her face. For the first time in as long as she could remember, someone had actually gotten her a gift that was, well _her_.

"They're wonderful Chuck! Thank you!"

Now it was her turn to ask Chuck how he had acquired such a gift. "But how did you get these?"

"A little magic of my own. I had a little help... from Casey."

"Casey?"

"Yeah, Ellie's Christmas cookie are really quite magical. One taste and he was ready to help me. He was even nice about it. I knew he was a really a softy. You just need to warm him up a little inside."

"I wouldn't let him hear you say that," Sarah laughed. "He might shoot you."

Chuck wasn't sure how much time Devon needed for whatever he had planned with Ellie, so to be safe he decided he would stay away until he was certain they had gone to bed. Well, Chuck's plan didn't really go as he had intended. Sure Ellie and Devon were probably asleep by now, but so was he. While waiting for an appropriate hour to return home, he had fallen asleep in Sarah's chair and Sarah had drifted off sprawled out sideways on the bed, still wearing her dress. Sarah also fell asleep with the heels she wore to dinner still covering her feet, which hung out over the side of the bed. The sight of of two well dressed individuals sleeping in such a manner created quite the picture and a rather adorable one at that.

Despite the unusual way they fell asleep, the sun was beaming in through the window before they woke. Sarah took a shower and got dressed, while Chuck sat waiting, not having anything he could change into on hand. Once Sarah was ready, they quickly headed out the door.

When they arrived at Casa Bartowski-Woodcomb Christmas morning, to exchange the remaining gifts, they found it to be completely still and quiet. Not a single sound could be heard throughout the apartment.

Neither Ellie nor Devon were in sight and Chuck assumed they were still sleeping. What was in sight however, was evidence of a romantic and passion filled evening. Champagne glasses with the slightest remnants of golden liquid sat on the the coffee table. Partially melted candles stood behind them and lying haphazardly on the couch, was the dress that Ellie had worn to dinner the night before and a man's suit jacket.


End file.
